“Welcome to my Worldâ€. Posts on Wednesday’s will be about whatever I feel like sharing. It may be about my kids, my thoughts, my memories or just a day in my life.
From watching the Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins to participating in multiple sports each season…anyone who knows my family knows that sports play a big part in our lives. Steve has consistently coached 2-4 teams a season for over 11 years. This season, he is currently the Manager and head coach of Shawn’s Majors baseball team, as well as coach for Malia and Kassia’s Junior Baseball team, assistant coach for Shawn’s All Star team and he assisted with coaching for Shawn’s Travel Soccer team. Through the years he has coached all 5 kids in basketball, soccer and baseball. We believe playing team sports is great for kids as it teaches them many valuable lessons about teamwork, doing your best, winning and losing with grace and dignity. The kids have learned how to be supportive of their peers and to push themselves to try a little harder each time. Most importantly, they have a lot of fun.
As mentioned above, our son Shawn is on the All Star team for baseball. Last year they played a few tournaments in the summer, and that same team recently got back together for a Memorial weekend tournament. There were 8 teams from around the area who attended. On Friday evening we played Martha’s Vineyard and beat them. The boys played a solid game that night.
Here’s Shawn and his buddy Collin after the game…
Saturday morning came quickly and the boys were back on the field warming up again…
Despite playing hard, they lost both games on Saturday…
Shawn on 1st
The first 3 games determined their standing in the single elimination playoffs on Sunday. Heading into it with 1 win and 2 losses, the boys had their work cut out for them.
Sunday morning, they started bright and early with a game against Rochester. They played an awesome game and won, which advanced them to the next round. With less than 30 minutes between the games, next up was Bourne. They were a tough team, but Falmouth played their hearts out and they won again. Here’s Shawn in the dugout after the game. He was hot and exhausted by this point, but excited to move on to the Championship game.
After each game, the coaches present a “game ball” to the player on the team who stood out the most. It is often a pitcher for saving the game, but it was also an Extra Hitter who hit a home-run or another team player who made a fantastic play. Baseball is definitely a team sport though, and if everyone isn’t playing their best the team will have a hard time winning. This is particularly true when you are playing on an All Star level. The kids are all very talented and they’ve worked hard to develop their skills. In my opinion, there really can never be an MVP in baseball. Even if a pitcher throws a perfect game, he still needs his catcher to be catching the ball and if the team in the field isn’t backing them up, it’s all for nothing. Likewise, if the team isn’t having solid “at-bats”, then they won’t put any runs on the scoreboard. I told Shawn on Saturday not to get upset if he doesn’t get a ball, as long as he is doing his best out there, that’s all anyone can ask for. Watching him throughout the series, I couldn’t help but notice that he got on base all but 2 times. One of those times he still got a hit, but it was caught. As one mom put it to me, “Shawn’s bat was on fire”. The best part was, I don’t think he even noticed how well he was playing. I’m always telling my boys that there’s nothing worse than being cocky. Do your best and let your record speak for itself. He even came up to me after each game upset about something he could have done better. I had to keep assuring him that he was doing great, that he got on base each time and that other kids had mistakes too. After all, they’re only 10 year-olds!
Meanwhile, Malia and Kassia were very patient for over 20 combined hours at the ball field that weekend. Here they are enjoying a piece of fried dough together…
Before the Championship game, the boys sat down and enjoyed a quick bite to eat in the 30 minutes they had to spare. It was cute to watch them just relaxing and having fun…
Too quickly it was time to rally and play the Championship game. We played a really tough Barnstable team that had already beaten us one time. Here’s my boy on 1st base…
Despite playing their little hearts out, it wasn’t in the cards for them to win this game. Truthfully, the boys were completely exhausted. They had spent a crazy amount of time at the ball field that weekend and they were done.
I was so proud of the whole team. They came in runner-up for the tournament out of 8 teams, playing 3 consecutive games on Sunday alone. Here they are getting their trophies…
What I love the most is how they are all smiling and having fun…
A great group of dedicated coaches 🙂
Our 10 year-old All Stars. I’m SO proud of every one of these boys.
Shawn was given the game ball at the end of the Championship game. The team Manager pointed out that he was a solid, consistent player throughout the tournament and that he had the best overall batting average. The best part of all was that Shawn didn’t even realize it 😉
One more shot…
One of the families invited the whole team over to their house for a cookout after the game. It was so much fun to watch the boys just let loose and play in the pool together after such a long weekend…
The coaches letting loose too…
Way to go boys! So proud of ALL of these guys!
